Returning the Green

The falling of economic trees to make way for the preparation of farm lands is one of the main reasons contributing to the diminishing number of trees in Mirigu in the Upper East region of Ghana. Returning the green project is proposing to encourage and support farmers to grow 100,000 cashew trees (which is a very economic tree and also thrive well in the north) in their farms lands while cultivating their food crops. This solution could change lives because Cashew trees start fruiting in three to five years and the farmers could sell the cashew nuts for extra income. Again Cashew tree during flowering stage attract a lot of insects including bees which farmers can start bee farming which is another economic venture to engage in.

The main problem of this project (Returing the Green) is seeking support to curtail the indiscriminate felling of trees which has affected rain fall pattern, increased bushfires, drying up of waterbodies in Mirigu which has affected rural farmers thus resulting in low crop yield. Over 3000 people mostly women and child stands to be affected if the situation persist. The problem has been further compounded by low crop yield as a result of unreliable rainfall pattern thus, pushing these rural folk to look for other alternative livelihood strategies. Hence, most of them turn to the selling of firewood and charcoal which has resulted to the increased felling of trees. With this project if farmers come to realize how economic and beneficial these trees are to them, they will be more willing to plant more of such trees which will evidently help these subsistence farmers.

The activities that will characterize this project include farmers’ orientation about the importance of persevering and planting of trees along with their food crops in their farms, assessment of farm lands and the provision of healthy planting materials to farmers who agree to non-destruction of trees as well as planting 100 trees in their farms. The project will therefore be delivered in phases, i.e orientation and land assessment, ploughing, sowing and planting of trees, weed, disease and pest control, harvesting, watering and caring of cashew trees in the dry/lean season, and the process is repeated for three years. The above mentioned activities will be completed in sequence and will be strictly monitored with the aid of drones to ensure that the desired objective of the project will be achieved.

The ultimate beneficiaries of this project are the vulnerable rural women farmers and their families from Mirigu who are mostly affected by low crop yield as a result of the climate change situation in their communities. Most of these women are the bread winners of their families and as such their children rely on them for food, school fees, hospital bills and other essential needs. By empowering these women, one is actually empowering a whole family and community at large. Holding series of meetings with the queen mother of Mirigu and women group leaders to better understand the situation and see how collectively we can mitigate it confirmed the earlier information gathered. Describing their plight left tears in our eyes. Some of these families live on one or two meals per day yet it is pitiful to talk of the nutritional levels of these meals. The meals are just meant to fill their bellies and not concentrated at what nutrition is targeted.

As already stated above the situation of felling trees to pave way for farming obstruct a sustainable way of producing food because trees are crucial in determining rain fall pattern. This project seeks to promote a farming practice that encourage the planting of trees as way to ensure there is reliable rain which will result in sustainable farming which ensures there is a sustained food system. The choice of women farmers is borne out of the fact that this situation affect women and children more and even in the Mirigu area, there are more female farmers than male farmers. 

Most farming practices involve the destruction of trees to make way for land preparation for the cultivation of food crops, which should not be the case. This practice has stayed long because of the long held believe that one cannot plant food crops under trees for fear of low yield. Most farming practices encourage the felling of trees but our idea intend to encourage farming system that will motivate the growing of cash trees while cultivating food crops. Cashew trees are commercial trees that will economically empower the female farmer because in lean season where the farmer will not be working on their farms, they will be harvesting cashew nuts which are a stream of income for them continuously. The life span of a cashew tree is estimate to survive up to 50 years with maturity period ranging between 3-5 years which means the farmer and family can derive their livelihood from it. 

Our solution will leverage on technology for utmost results and as such will make use of drones for surveillance and monitoring purposes to ensure that farmers are adhering and following directives. the solution will further make use of a mobile app call Akida which the farmers will use to report about their visits to the project site, the GPS feature of this mobile app will allow supervisors to know real time and exact location where the report is been filed.

Both technologies that will be deployed are widely use for monitoring and valuation purposes. Drones are widely use in Ghana for surveillance. EXP Ghana an advertising and brand research agency makes use of Akida mobile app in its data gathering process.

Our solution of planting cashew alongside crops plants will produce results because of the type of trees that will be planted. Cashew trees are not dense and as such allows the penetration of enough sunlight in the farm that will support the planting food crops such as groundnuts, soya beans among others as such farmers will most likely accept such a tree. In the another vain, Cashew trees start fruiting three years after planting as such farmers will enjoy the fruit of their labour from the sale of these cashew nuts and fruits. Another aspect of this project is the Bee farming that farmers will be engaging in due to the Bees that will be attracted by the flowers of the cashew trees.

As part of the project, farmers who accept to plant and care for trees in their farm will enjoy free farm inputs such as planting seeds, organic fertilizer, extension services for a period of three years by then the first trees would have started fruiting.

The ultimate beneficiaries of this project are the vulnerable women farmers and their families from Mirigu who are mostly affected by low crop yield as a result of the climate change situation in their communities and this project will produce results because the benefits are short and long termed.

Our solution will serve 100 people in the first year for easy management and piloting purposes. The second year will will be expanded to directly cover 300 women and in the fifth year, the project is expected to affect not less than 1000 vulnerable women farmers and by then, the farmers assisted in the first two years would have started harvesting cashew from their farms.

Our goal for next year is to see that 100 vulnerable women farmers plant 100 Cashew seedlings each alongside their farm crops. The project will be providing them with farm inputs and extension services. Therefore, we expect to see these women getting more crop yield to sustain them till the next planting season and beyond and still have excess to sell. These will be achieved through efficient monitoring and reporting system that will put in the place.  

The major obstacle that may limit our impact is financial barriers, given the fact that the project can not be implemented without enough funding. Without enough funding it will be difficult to purchase the needed logistics to effectively implement the solution.

The second barrier is cultural given that women are not allowed to owned lands in most northern societies of Ghana. 

The major obstacle that may limit our impact is financial barriers, given the fact that the project can not be implemented without enough funding. Without enough funding it will be difficult to purchase the needed logistics to effectively implement the solution.

The second barrier is cultural given that women are not allowed to owned lands in most northern societies of Ghana.

1. Full-time staff = 5
2. Part-time staff = 10
3. Contractors = 3

The team to oversee of the project includes Agana Blaise A. a journalist and an Activist with Citizen Advocacy Ghana and a volunteer to Magan Charity Foundation, Evans Anyedina a trained Planner and researcher, a passionate community developer and as such rendered voluntary services from 2006-to-date in areas such as agriculture, conflict resolution, and water and Sanitation. Others include  Abdul-Rauf Bukari  a professional marketing expect and a volunteer in education (2008-2009) and Linda Akaluli a Computerize Accountant by profession an advocate. This team can be trusted to handle this project as they are young, experienced and passionate about helping vulnerable communities. 

We partner with Ministry of Food and Agriculture to provide extension services to Vulneral women farmers in the Upper East Region.

The beneficiaries of this project will be given farm inputs including seeds and organic fertilizer. This is as a result of the farmers inability to access these inputs for their farms. Thus, we believe providing them with this hard to reach commodity, we will win their interest to work with us in the tree planting. Also, we intend to plough for them as a result of the hard nature of the land. So to expect any better yield and for easy planting and maintenance of cashew trees, we thought it is necessary to plough for them. We also plan to support these farmers with cashew seedlings and other necessary implements and machinery for growing cashew. This would be a precondition to getting the support of farm inputs. This we believe will propel many vulnerable farmers to subscribe to growing cashew trees thus promoting their sustainable livelihood without knowingly and also fighting climate change.  

Solve presents an opportunity and a platform that allows me share my ideas and seek support to turn the life of less privilege people into success.

Solve is a community of people who are passionate about seeing societies develop, and quality of life is improved and as such these are virtues that Key Institute and Management Services uphold there so i identify with the vision of the solve community. 

Solve also could potentially partner with me to make sure that this dream becomes a reality.

By working with other individuals, groups and organizations it will greatly impact on the possibility of achieving great goals together. In specific reference to this solve challenge, our partnership will ensure that those lands that has been destroyed by tree falling will be restored by planting commercial trees and it also will go a long way to ensure that the women who will be involve in this project will be empowered economically. With this empowerment, these women will self dependent and will affect the quality of life of these women and their families especially their children who will have quality food to eat, improved quality education and this greatly affect the quality of life of the community and globally.

We love to work with organisations and individuals so as to increase impact and also be able to work together to achieve greater results. We will also love to partner with Solve Members to scale 

These partners will work with us in the area of information sharing, technology sharing and also in the area of funding support.

Our solution is women focused and as such is interested in women development and empowerment.

This prize will go along way to help us scale the said solution to affect other areas which are suffering from similar situations.

Future Planet Capital is working to solve global issues and our solution is looking at how we will be able to solve global issue such as climate change.

Key Institute and Management Services is open to partner with Future Planet Capital Prize to find solutions to some of the challenges that are currently affecting our planet.